harl

See also: Harl

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɑːl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)l

Etymology 1

Cognate with Middle Low German herle, Low German harle, Saterland Frisian harrel (“hemp fibre”).

Noun

harl (plural harls)

1. A fibre, especially a fibre of hemp or flax, or an individual fibre of a feather.
   • 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:

     She pushed her fingers under the cream lace, into the ginger harl of spun glass.

2. A barb, or barbs, of a fine large feather, as of a peacock or ostrich, used in dressing artificial flies.
   • 1875, Angling‎^[1], 9th edition, volume 2, Encyclopædia Britannica, page 44:

     Should it be desired, however, to run the hackle all over the body, it may be tied on along with the peacock's harls.

Verb

harl (third-person singular simple present harls, present participle harling, simple past and past participle harled)

1. (transitive) To surface a building using a slurry of pebbles or stone chips which is then cured using a lime render.
   • 1996, Miles Glendinning, Ranald MacInnes, Aonghus MacKechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture, →ISBN, page 361:

     The east side facade is of rubble, studded with small windows and mannered details, while the harled rear (south) wall forms, as completed, a towering, roughly symmetrical grouping.

Etymology 2

Verb

harl (third-person singular simple present harls, present participle harling, simple past and past participle harled)

1. (transitive, Scotland) To drag along the ground.
2. (intransitive, Scotland) To drag oneself along.
3. To troll for fish.

Noun

harl (plural harls)

1. (Scotland) The act of dragging.
2. A small quantity; a scraping of anything.

Anagrams

• Lahr, rhlA